Psychology Commons^™

An Exploration Of The Experience Of Open Awareness Co-Meditation At The Beginning Of Therapy Sessions, Aneeqa Ishtiaq

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mindfulness and meditation have been seen as beneficial for mental health and mindfulness-based therapies have proliferated alongside an increase in popular interest in mindfulness (Germer, Siegel, & Fulton, 2013). However, many therapists are unaware of how to add mindfulness-based interventions. It may seem especially ambiguous for therapists and clients unfamiliar with the concept. In this dissertation, the history and current research on mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and its benefits and contraindications, are reviewed, and the researcher’s relationship to the topic is explained. It is identified that one way to add mindfulness to psychotherapy is for the therapist and the client to co-meditate …

A Qualitative Study Of The Healthcare Experiences Of Hispanic/Latino Persons Of Limited English Proficiency In The Rural Midwest, Emily Pauli

Honors Thesis

The U.S. population is becoming more diverse, and this diversity calls for adaptations that allow our healthcare system to adequately care for all individuals. The group that is currently growing the most quickly in the United States is Hispanics/Latinos (United States Census Bureau, 2016). This group faces additional challenges when it comes to receiving healthcare services, particularly when it comes to rural settings. For those Hispanics/Latinos with limited English proficiency (LEP) residing in rural settings, it can be quite difficult to access healthcare in Spanish, creating for less-than-ideal healthcare experiences.

In the following pages, we will examine some of the …

Mental Health 101: Teaching Students And Campus Leaders How To Help Those In Crisis, Megan B. Kuhnly

Senior Honors Projects

One in four Americans ages 18 and older live with a diagnosable mental health disorder. Due to this high prevalence it is very likely that everyone will encounter someone dealing with a mental health crisis in his or her lifetime. Many college students will experience a crisis during their four years of study due to the high levels of stress and psychological triggers. However, we are often not taught how to help these individuals and the resources available are not well advertised. This lack of education and awareness leads to many students being forced to suffer alone and their mental …

Social Factors In Prescription Stimulant Abuse Among College Students, Trevor J. Levingston

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In an attempt to maximize their academic performance, many American college students turn toward such prescription stimulant drugs as Adderall and Ritalin, which can increase users' attention span and ability to focus, but are not without risks, including such aversive side effects as anxiety, migraines, and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Prevalence rates for prescription stimulant abuse (PSA) by college students vary widely, with rates as high as 50.6% (McCabe, West, Teter, & Boyd, 2014). PSA among college students is most commonly endorsed for perceived academic benefits, but many students report engaging in recreational PSA, often to resist the depressant effects of alcohol …

Social Support And Well-Being In Lgbt Adults, Jessica D. Brown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among positive mental health, well-being, and perceived social support in individuals who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The participants included 251 individuals from a rural area in the Midwest who completed an online survey; 47 of these individuals identified as LGBT. Well-Being was measured using the Warwick- Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS; Stewart-Brown et al., 2002), and perceived social support was evaluated using the Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988). Scores were compared between LGBT and Non-LGBT participants. At an …

The Influence Of Values And Recipient Groups On Social Welfare Policy Opinion, Christopher Pulliam

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The following paper examines how value-based considerations for social welfare policy opinion are affected by changes in the race of the program recipient. I propose a new model to understand social welfare policy opinion called the interactive model—where instrinsic considerations are tempered by extrinsic considerations. Through an original survey experiment, I find that humanitarianism and economic individualism do not have significant effects on social welfare policy opinion. However, egalitarianism is found to have a strong impact. When the race of the program recipient is changed from white to African-American, the impact of egalitarianism increases for views of Medicare. When the …

(Re)Painting Self: Art Therapy And Ontological Security In Refugee Children, Domonique Jimerson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

To be a refugee is to know loss intimately. The refugee experience can be characterized by the multidimensional loss the loss of loved ones, support networks, economic security, culture, safety, and home.^{1 2} The compounding of traumatic experience can have a profound effect on belief systems and identity. This paper will explore the relationship between trauma and ontological state in resettled refugee children. The philosophical concept of ontological security considers the ability create consistent expectations about the way the world operates to a stable mental state.³ The three states of ontology security and shock will be useful in …

Exploring The Effect Of Encoding Modality And Rehearsal Strategy On Foreign Language Vocabulary Recall, Danielle R. Bestfelt

Undergraduate Theses

Experience with a foreign language is considered a valuable skill in workplace and school settings alike. However, recent studies in the field of psychology exploring the process of acquiring a second language have limited applicability, especially for adults with English as a first language. This study sought to explore the relation between encoding modality (auditory, visual, or visual and auditory; based on Baddeley’s model of working memory) and rehearsal strategy (active or passive, based on Craik and Lockhart’s Level of Processing approach and Roger’s Self-Reference Effect) in the recall of foreign language vocabulary words. Vocabulary words were the target information …

The New Theory Of Disuse Predicts Retrieval Enhanced Suggestibility (Res), Victoria Bartek

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Retrieval enhanced suggestibility (RES) refers to an effect where initial testing of an event leads to better learning of and higher production of misinformation regarding that event. This paper proposes the New Theory of Disuse (Bjork & Bjork, 1992) as a supplement to the retrieval fluency account for RES (Thomas et al., 2010). The amount of interference presented between the misinforming narrative and final test was manipulated in order to investigate how decays in retrieval strength (how easily a memory is recalled) affect misinformation reporting. Results suggested that the learning of interfering information may decrease RES, but that this effect …

Structural And Functional Neural Correlates Of A Mind-Body Connection., Leonard Faul

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The human brain underlies the complex cognitive processes of the mind, however, this is dependent upon the physiological processes of the body in order to receive adequate energy, oxygen, and blood flow. Therefore, physical measurements such as body mass index (BMI) and indices of cognitive functioning, such as intelligence, may be related via common neural features. Current analyses assessed morphometric differences in cortical and subcortical grey matter regions, white matter structural integrity, and resting-state functional activation in order to determine what combinations of neural variables predict BMI and intelligence (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence; WASI) with the best degree of …

The Relationship Between Adhd And Emotion Regulation And Its Effect On Parenting Stress., Cibrian A. Johnson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This study examined the relationship between ADHD diagnostic status and child-reported emotion regulation and its relationship with parenting stress within three subscales – Parent Distress, Difficult Child, and Parent-Child Dysfunctional interaction. Two hundred children ages 7-13 were enrolled in the study, including 120 children with ADHD and 80 children without ADHD. Overall, it was found that ADHD diagnostic status was significantly associated with the Parent Distress subscale, both ADHD diagnostic status and emotion regulation difficulties were significantly associated with the Difficult Child subscale, and emotion regulation difficulties were significantly associated with the Parent-Child Dysfunctional interaction subscale. This study not only …

Infants' Perception Of Faces In Face-Like And Ambiguous Images., Lauren E Dale

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Faces are special to infants. Infants look longer at faces than objects, human faces than non-human faces, and upright faces compared to inverted faces. The objective of this study was to see if infants demonstrated signs of pareidolia. Pareidolia is the ability to see a face in a non-face object, such as a face in a cloud. Previous research has shown that adults see faces in everyday objects, but less is known about infants' perception of such images. In the present study, infants 7-9 months old (N = 47) were tested. Infants were shown eight images, which adults had …

Induced Emotions On Shoot Decisions, Audrey Kaye Snowden

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the effect of emotion on shoot decision bias. Student participants from The University of Texas at Arlington were randomly assigned to one of five emotion induction conditions (angry, contemptuous, happy, sad, or neutral) where they wrote about an emotional experience and then participated in a first person shooter task. Initial results revealed no differences with emotion conditions on racial and shooter bias indices. Inspection of the components which make up racial and shooter bias unveiled partial racial and shooter bias. After comparing immigrants to Americans, it was found that immigrants did not …

The Influence Of Self-Compassion On Conflict Resolution Processes In Marriages, Joyce Cha

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Increasing attention is given to third-wave cognitive-behavioral concepts such as selfcompassion. This study seeks to explore the impact of self-compassion on conflict resolution in marital relationships. While recent research highlights the influence of self-compassion on relationship satisfaction as a whole, little exploration has been done on the impact of selfcompassion on relational conflict, a significant component of marital relationships or the impact of the bi-directional impact relationship satisfaction has on levels of self-compassion.

The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between levels of selfcompassion and conflict processes in married couples. It was hypothesized that levels of selfcompassion …

Alcohol Related Rural Emergency Department Use: A Treatment Opportunity, Ezekiel Sanders

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The negative impact of alcohol on an individual’s social, psychological, and physiological health is well known. Despite this knowledge, it remains a prevalent problem in our society. Residents of rural communities encounter a wide range of risk factors including poverty, unemployment, and limited access to healthcare. These factors can influence both the prevalence and treatment for alcohol use disorders. With limited access to medical resources, the Emergency Department (ED) can become the default provider for problems related to alcohol use. The reported prevalence of alcohol-related problems in the ED varies widely from an estimated 2% to 40% of all visits. …

A Radical Idea: Applying Psychological Strategy To Combat Foreign Fighters Defending The Islamic State, David Michael Smaney

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the necessity of psychological strategies to combat the Islamic State’s recruitment of foreign fighters. This thesis argues that psychological strategies are a primary weapon due to the psychological nature of the war against the Islamic State, which is a part of the overall war of ideas. This thesis does not consider psychological strategies for other aspects of U.S. counterterrorism strategy, nor does it reflect the difficulties involved with developing U.S. strategies in the U.S. federal government. Furthermore, this thesis only focuses on foreign fighter defending and supporting the Islamic State, which is the successor of Al …

Returning To Abusive Relationships: Related And Predictive Factors, Rachel Leanne Swadley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Domestic violence and interpersonal abuse affects one-third of women and can have extreme negative consequences on the victim's psychological and physical health and well-being. Recently, the related area of a victim's choice to return to an abusive relationship has been studied more thoroughly, although the body of literature in this area is still relatively small and only provides limited evidence for factors predicting return to abuse. The current research examined the possible risk factors of victims of interpersonal violence in leaving and returning to abusive situations. 40 participants were recruited from a domestic violence shelter and completed a questionnaire packet …

Stereotype Threat In Higher Education: The Role Of Psychological Capital On Student Satisfaction And Commitment, Lei J. Shirase

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Stereotype threat refers to being at risk or confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative group stereotype about one's group. Past research has linked stereotype threat to a multitude of detrimental outcomes including decreased test performance, the drainage of cognitive resources, and increased stress levels. However, many of these findings were confined to laboratory settings and focused only on immediate effects. Research on stereotype threat framed as a macro-level product in a non-laboratory setting is limited at this time. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the present study examined the lingering effects of stereotype threat on minority satisfaction / commitment in …

Workplace Bullying: A Validation Study, Brooke Christine Bengel

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Bullying in the workplace is a difficult construct to define. Research has largely used questionnaires developed based upon the inclusion of self-reported incidents rather than a theoretical model of the construct. This study utilized a six dimension model (emotional abuse, professional discredit and denigration, control and manipulation of information, control-abuse of working conditions, isolation, and devaluation of the role in the workplace). Items from the most frequently used bullying and incivility scales were presented to participants and factor analyzed to determine if the model could be reproduced. Convergent validity was assessed by examining the relationship with known correlates, job satisfaction …

Re-Examining The Influence Of Non-Cognitive, Person Centered Factors On Academic Success, Alexandra Pantze

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This project expands upon a previous study examining the effectiveness of non-cognitive variables in predicting cumulative grade point average for a sample of college students from Missouri State University. A total of 291 introductory psychology students and/or recipients of a multicultural leadership scholarship completed a questionnaire during the fall 2013 semester. The questionnaire assessed the following variables: (a) institutional integration, (b) university environment, (c) cultural congruity, (d) dispositional resilience/ hardiness, (e) academic self-efficacy, (f) big five personality factors, and (g) demographic variables- including family education and household income. The current data collection included cumulative GPA at the completion of summer …

Effects Of Prosocial Video Games On Resulting Prosocial Behaviors, Danielle Langlois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past research indicates that prosocial video game play has a role in subsequent prosocial behaviors, affect, and accessibility of prosocial thoughts via the General Learning Model. The exposure time in this past research has varied widely, so an experiment that both replicates existing research and looks at exposure time was developed. In this study participants played either a prosocial game, or a neutral game for 10 or 20 minutes (participants in the control condition did not play a game at all). Differences between these groups were assessed, while correcting for trait measures of altruism and aggression. In general, there were …

The Issues And Complexities Surrounding The Future Of Long Duration Spaceflight, Solomon Miiro

Graduate Student Works

The Comprehensive Exam put forward by this proposal is intended to address the learning objectives covered by the Master of Aeronautical Science Degree with specializations in Aviation Aerospace Safety Systems and some limited aspects in Human Factors in Aviation Systems. This will be accomplished by researching the following topics: effects of long duration spaceflight on crew performance and functioning and the steps that should be taken to enable long term spaceflight mission crews in lieu of accomplishing important missions; a human factor analysis should current human-machine design interfaces be enhanced to make manual rendezvous and docking in space easier to …

Factors In Public School Settings That Result In Teacher Agency, Jessica Hadid

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

A quality system for educating a nation’s youth depends upon a teaching force that continually learns, and applies its learning outcomes to active problem solving and development. Many current school and district models minimize teacher ability to engage in meaningful change, ultimately undermining the teachers’ sense of personal and professional agency. Literature suggests that internal forms of motivation are likely to result in the development of agency via self-determination of actions and behaviors. This mixed methods study examined five public schools in a small K-12 district through the lens of self-determination theory. An initial set of quantitative data were collected …

Overparenting And Emerging Adults' Mental Health: The Mediating Role Of Emotional Distress Tolerance, Christopher Michael Perez

Master's Theses

Overparenting is a type of parental control that features intense parental involvement, which is negatively associated with the development of age-appropriate autonomous behavior in children and emerging adults. To this point, overparenting has been linked to poor mental health in young children (Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006; Gar & Hudson, 2008), as well as in emerging adults (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011; Segrin, Woszidlo, Givertz, & Montgomery, 2013). The emerging adult population has continued to be one of interest across recent studies concerning mental health, given the unique emotional and behavioral changes that arise during this stage of development. Emotional distress …

Does Personality Similarity In Bottlenose Dolphin Pairs Influence Dyadic Bond Characteristics?, Kelsey R. Moreno

Master's Theses

Social structures are critical to the success of many species and have repercussions on health, well-being, and adaptation, yet little is known about the factors which shape these structures aside from ecology and life history strategies. Dyadic bonds are the basis of all social structures; however, mechanisms for formations of specific bonds or patterns in which individuals form which types of bonds have yet to be demonstrated. There is a variety of evidence indicating personality may be a factor in shaping bonds, but this relationship has not been explored with respect to bond components and is yet to be demonstrated …

Assessing Career Decision-Making Status: The Casve Cycle Questionnaire, Brianna J. Werner

Master's Theses

The CASVE Cycle Questionnaire (CASVE-CQ) was developed to assess an individual’s progress in the CASVE cycle. A multi-phase development process was utilized, which included: initial item development, review by the current targeted demographic (i.e., college students), expert review, measure pilot, and measure administration with item refinement at each of the first three phases. Additionally, the CASVE-CQ identifies those who may have passed over important components of the CASVE cycle. As hypothesized and consistent with guided theory, exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 6 factor measure consisting of 55 items. Validity was supported through correlations between the CASVE-CQ and the identity …

Sparking A Dolphin's Curiosity: Individual Differences In Dolphins' Reactions To Surprising And Expectation-Violating Events, Malin Katarina Lilley

Master's Theses

Non-scientific literature consistently describes dolphins as “curious animals,” but there has been little systematic research on curiosity in dolphins. Curiosity in humans and certain non-human animal species, including birds and non-human primates, has been studied by examining individual differences in exploration and reactions to novel stimuli. Additionally, research has explored how human infants and non-human animals react when an event violates their expectations. The present study explored dolphins’ reactions to spontaneously surprising and expectation-violating stimuli. The reactions of dolphins, 15 bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and 6 rough-toothed (Steno bredanensis), at Gulf World Marine Park were analyzed in …

Grooming As An Agonistic Behavior In Garnett’S Small-Eared Bushbaby (Otolemur Garnettii), Jennie L. Christopher

Master's Theses

Social behaviors are a necessary component of group living and interactions between organisms. To correctly assess social interactions, researchers must be able to observe behaviors and interpret their function based on the behavior or the behavioral context. In primate species, grooming is often used to assess affiliations between group members and the consensus has been to always interpret grooming as an affiliative behavior. However, a number of avian, rodent and feline species have been shown to groom conspecifics aggressively. These instances of aggressive grooming appear most often when individuals are required to maintain close proximity to one another, such as …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Effect Of Violent Video Game Play On Capability For Suicide, Claire Houtsma

Master's Theses

According to the interpersonal theory of suicide, for an individual to be capable of engaging in suicidal behavior they must be fearless about death and possess elevated physical pain tolerance. It is believed that such capability is developed through exposure to painful and/or provocative events, which serve to habituate the individual to fear and pain. The current study sought to expand on previous studies to examine the impact of video game play on capability for suicide. Participants (n = 63) were randomly assigned to a violent or non-violent video game condition and fearlessness about death and pain tolerance were assessed …

Increasing Novel Vocalizations For Individuals With Asd Using A Voice Output Communication Aide, Shawn Kathleen Bishop

Master's Theses

This study aimed to extend the literature on VOCA as a means of producing increased verbal speech using a prompt delay and shaping methods. Intervention targeted novel vocalization for three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and limited vocal speech. All three participants increased vocalizations, but to varying degrees and only after a second phase where an echoic prompt was introduced. While the results vary across participants, increased vocal speech for all participants and high social validity suggest that VOCA-based interventions may be an appropriate intervention to increase vocal output for children with ASD.